GemCoin (USFIA)

Summary

U.S. Fine Investment Arts (USFIA), run by Steve Chen out of Arcadia, California, promoted itself as a multi-level-marketing company extracting amber and gemstones from mines it claimed to own (in the U.S., Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Mexico) — mines that did not exist. From September 2014 it shifted to selling "Gem Coins," a purported digital currency it falsely claimed was backed by those gemstone holdings and already in wide circulation. ^[1][2]

Scale and outcome

From 2013 to 2015, Chen fraudulently obtained about $147 million from roughly 72,000 investors worldwide — one of the largest pyramid schemes prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. The SEC brought an enforcement action (asset freeze and receiver) in 2015; Chen pleaded guilty in June 2020 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion and was sentenced in January 2021 to 120 months (10 years). ^[1][2]

Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.